The Microcourse entitled “Mixed Chorus — Voice Constitution and Formation Arrangement,” designed and made by the Ministry of Education Research & Training Centre for Community Education, has achieved recently the second prize of “the First National Microcourse Contest”.
Making News the Core
Do you want to attend Tsinghua University, Peking University or Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)? In the past, these institutions were out of the reach of ordinary people. Today however, only an Internet connection is needed to “sit” in these prestigious classrooms and listen to their lectures. In this fashion, learners can earn credits from these top universities and obtain academic qualifications.
In the autumn semester of 2013, the Beijing Learning Centre of the OUC added two new study locations in Beijing: Wantong Automobile Maintenance School and Weishanzhuang Conference Centre. In order to provide satisfying teaching support services to these new locations, the Beijing Learning Centre designed a system for the simultaneous teaching interaction of the different study locations and simultaneous recording to provide a teaching service package to students.
In order to fast-forward the construction of a high quality online core curriculum, the Open University of China (OUC) conducted a series of training activities with the theme of “The design and development of an online core curriculum based on the OUC’s learning platform” from October 9-11, 2013. Ms. Christine Armatas, a professor from North Melbourne Polytechnic University, was invited to lecture at the training activity. More than 60 teachers, managerial and technical personnel from the OUC attended the onsite training. In total, 70 people took part in the online live broadcast. 
On October 9, 2013, the MOE Research & Training Centre for Community Education (hereinafter referred to as Centre) held a Symposium on Building an Experiential Learning Centre, which discussed methods of construction and management, operational mechanisms, curriculum setup and the teaching methods that the Experiential Learning Centre would employ.
On September 13, 2013, the Publishing and Media Group (PMG), together with the Beijing Association for Digital Science and Technology Popularization (BADSTP), hosted “2013 Digital Publishing Industry Salon”. Twenty-one experts in digital science and technology popularization and publishing were invited, including Deputy Secretary-General
The Open University of China’s (OUC) third international Chinese teacher training session for open university system was held from September 25-29 at the OUC Wukesong campus. 22 core teachers and teaching administrative staff from provincial and municipal Radio and TV Universities (RTVUs) in Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Shenyang, Hebei, Shandong, Xinjiang, Gansu, Guizhou, Xi’an, Chongqing, Zhejiang, Ningbo, Fujian and other provinces completed the five-day training.The 2013 review of Open University of China (OUC) Outstanding Courses has been completed, with 40 courses from 19 provincial radio and TV universities (PRTVUs), two local open universities and two schools of the OUC selected (see appendix for complete list).
On September 11, 2013, the work initiation conferenced for the modification of the Advanced Vocational Majors Catalogue (hereafter referred to as “the Catalogue”) was held at the OUC in Beijing.
A distance demonstrative teacher training program for kindergarten teachers was recently completed in Beijing. More than 70 key teachers from Beijing, Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Jiangsu attended the one-week training.